Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Harsha De Silva repeatedly criticised the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for what he called an abdication of its duty.

He was speaking at the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka’s (PUCSL) Energy Forum on Thursday evening.

In his keynote speech and the panel discussion, De Silva called out the CEB for not attending the event, for failing to cooperate with the PUCSL, for neglecting the government’s pursuit of renewable energy, and for inefficiencies in tender procurement, losses incurred, and over-inflated salaries.

He began his speech by excoriating the CEB for not attending the Energy Forum. “The Ceylon Electricity Board General Manager is not here. We are talking about electricity at this Energy Forum 2017. This is organised by the regulator. I am here, the Chairman is here, the invitees are here. Where is the CEB General Manager? What is the anxiety attack the man has got?”

De Silva emphasised the government’s “deep disappointment that the Ceylon Electricity Board has been very unprofessional by not participating in the forum”.

Repeatedly throughout the forum, he took the CEB to task for not doing their jobs, leading to incomplete procurements.

“How can we complete the procurements if those members of the procurement committees are not sitting on those procurement committees?”

He specifically mentioned the proposed LNG power plant at Kerawalapitiya, blaming the CEB for delay.

“I have sat in multiple CCM meetings and multiple excuses have been given about why it is delayed. Six people bid, five people were disqualified, only one person was selected and that person didn’t have a proper bid. What happens now? Now what has happened is that no CEB engineer is sitting on the procurement boards. That’s a hell of a how-do- you-do. Are we being kept to ransom by certain people?”

De Silva acknowledged that there are disagreements between the CEB and the PUCSL as a regulating body regarding the Long-Term Generation Expansion Plan, but said that these were technical differences without bearings on tender procurements and should have been sorted out by now.

And he took issue with the way in which problems with the CEB turn into allegations against the Government, which he says are without merit.

“It is not the decision of the Cabinet or the Minister in charge, or the Prime Minister or the President, to go ahead and order a tender. It must be done by those who have been appointed to do it. If those who have been appointed to do it are absconding and not sitting in these tender committees and approving these projects, then how is it the fault of the Government?

“It is just like the CEB is not present here to discuss these matters. They are running away from the responsibilities they have been tasked with in going through the proper procedures and selecting who needs to be given these tenders so that the plants can come online,” De Silva said.

De Silva also criticised the CEB’s Rs. 30 billion loss for the first six months of 2017. He argued that Sri Lankan citizens end up paying for that through taxes on “bread or sugar or milk powder,” as well as the CEB’s Rs. 40 billion debt incurred to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation in the first nine months of this year. He said these losses might be owed in part to the salaries of various CEB employees, which he called “very high.”

De Silva conceded that the Government carried some responsibility for not implementing proper reforms, but he insisted that the Government is trying in its attempts to reform not just the CEB but the entire energy sector.

2 Responses to Harsha slams CEB

. I wish to ask from Professor Harsha de Silva and other UNP Parliamentarians the following questions regarding Solar Power

1) Was 3Kw solar power panel at Sri Kotha was it paid by the UNP or by us the people
2) The total cost paid
3) The net effect did it act as a generator exporting power
4) What was the payment you received monthly and from whom
According to my experience and being a 86 plus Professional Engineer , the above roof top solar panel can never act as a generator and that it will be established that these roof top solar panels is the biggest fraud committed on we the people in our country’s history . The following are the reasons to establish that solar power is the biggest fraud committed in our country’s history
1) I am giving you the reasons on solar Power from the internet that the average efficiency is only 12 % as such if it is estimated that that for a 3 Kw solar panel to make the Solar Panel to act as a generator because of its inefficiency it will need a 24 Kw solar panel as such non of the roof top solar panels will act as a generator but we are paying them at the rate of Rs 22 Per kWh as such any laymen could understand this is a colossal fraud , in addition since the availability factor of Solar Power in Sri Lanka is only 18 % as such for the 3Kw solar panel to act as a generator 24x 5 Kw is required= 120Kw and since a total of 65 Mw of roof top solar power as been connected in our country according to reliable source

2) our country’s economy has been effected due all the solar panels not acting as a generator as such it is urgently required to test the 3Kw roof top Solar Panel in the following manner stated below and make the findings public
3) The best way of checking the effectiveness of the 3 Kw solar panels in Sri Lankan Conditions is to directly connect it to a load of the rating 3Kw through a domestic meter of rating 60 amps and daily take readings for 3 days at the same time this should be supervised by, The Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, The Institution of Engineering and Technology Sri Lanka Branch, CEB Engineers, Sustainable Energy Authority PUCSL, the Media and Parliamentarians and within 6 hours we will be able to state that solar panels are a massive fraud or not . do the UNP agree to carry out this test..
4) When all the UNP MPs in parliament give a response to the letter it will be seen whether the CEB Engineers or the PUCSL together with deputy ministers like Professor Harsha de Silva who have a addicted to non conventional renewable energy for reasons known only to themselves but giving us and our country one of the highest cost electricity in the world contravening article 3,4,12 and 33 (f) of our constitution
5) The response to this letter by the UNP Parliamentarians is expected to be given before the 22nd of November 2017 and made public if it can be done much earlier it would be better as every days delay in keeping BOT coal fueled electricity as base load and economical Hydro with large reservoirs as peaking power causes us the people a loss of a estimated one Billion Rs. per day .

In additional to the above comment, I wish to state that Professor Harsha Silva as commented that the CEB Engineers have given to themselves high salaries The Engineers cannot give themselves high salaries like our representatives in parliament it is because they deserve it the power ministry has given them high salaries, Professor Harsha Silva maybe ignorant of the fact that most of the CEB Engineers can obtain membership of the Institute of Engineering and Technology from which they can obtain the Professional Engineering License which will enable them to practice as a Engineer in any part of the western world in countries like UK, EU, USA, Australia, New Zealand. It should not be forgotten that the CEB Engineers Union is the most powerful trade union in Sri Lanka but because they did not strike , the strike of several thousand of skilled and unskilled workers of the CEB was not successful as such Professor Silva should have by his ignorance have full faith in the PUCSL who none of the Engineers in the PUCSL have any experience in thermal power generation but costing we the people several hundreds of million Rupees. Per year to mantain